Chapter 3

Over Gods forebode, then said the King,
That thou shouldst shoot at me.

William Bell, Clim 'o the Cleugh, etc.

On the morning after the funeral, the legal officer whose authority
had been found insufficient to effect an interruption of the funeral
solemnities of the late Lord Ravenswood, hastened to state before the
Keeper the resistance which he had met with in the execution of his
office.

The statesman was seated in a spacious library, once a banqueting-room
in the old Castle of Ravenswood, as was evident from the armorial
insignia still displayed on the carved roof, which was vaulted with
Spanish chestnut, and on the stained glass of the casement, through
which gleamed a dim yet rich light on the long rows of shelves, bending
under the weight of legal commentators and monkish historians, whose
ponderous volumes formed the chief and most valued contents of a
Scottish historian [library] of the period. On the massive oaken
table and reading-desk lay a confused mass of letters, petitions, and
parchments; to toil amongst which was the pleasure at once and the
plague of Sir William Ashton's life. His appearance was grave and even
noble, well becoming one who held an high office in the state; and it
was not save after long and intimate conversation with him upon topics
of pressing and personal interest, that a stranger could have discovered
something vacillating and uncertain in his resolutions; an infirmity of
purpose, arising from a cautious and timid disposition, which, as he was
conscious of its internal influence on his mind, he was, from pride as
well as policy, most anxious to conceal from others. He listened with
great apparent composure to an exaggerated account of the tumult which
had taken place at the funeral, of the contempt thrown on his own
authority and that of the church and state; nor did he seem moved even
by the faithful report of the insulting and threatening language which
had been uttered by young Ravenswood and others, and obviously directed
against himself. He heard, also, what the man had been able to collect,
in a very distorted and aggravated shape, of the toasts which had been
drunk, and the menaces uttered, at the subsequent entertainment. In fine,
he made careful notes of all these particulars, and of the names of
the persons by whom, in case of need, an accusation, founded upon these
violent proceedings, could be witnessed and made good, and dismissed his
informer, secure that he was now master of the remaining fortune, and
even of the personal liberty, of young Ravenswood.

When the door had closed upon the officer of the law, the Lord Keeper
remained for a moment in deep meditation; then, starting from his
seat, paced the apartment as one about to take a